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Thursday, March 19, 2009

Anxious for the awakening of Spring, I decided to dress my dining room table with an oversized ChocolateEaster Egg and several cartons of smaller Chocolate eggs on a silver platter atop a lace tablecloth.

Yummy white, dark, and milkChocolateeggs decorated with even more swirls of the decadent stuff..... Little Chocolatebunnies ready to be nibbled upon......

But Look Closer.... they are not the real Chocolate eggs and bunnies that you buy in the store.

THEY ARE FAKES!.....Which is good for me, 'cause I gave up these sweet treats for Lent! I am anxiously awaiting Easter Sunday when I can take a big giant bite out of a REAL ChocolateEaster bunny!! Until then, I continue to crave what I cannot have. I make it point to bypass the candy aisles in the discount stores and the grocery store.

But this afternoon I could simply not resist picking up this small box of Chocolatesat TJMaxx. It reminded me to be a good person and Hear No Evil, See No Evil, and Speak No Evil. And the only way to do it would be to bite off the parts of that DARNChocolateEaster Bunny!!!!

And as much as I would've like to have bought these little guys, taken them home and partaken of their goodness,

Monday, March 16, 2009

A friend of mine sent me these photos of a dying bird and its mate.According to her information,they were taken by a photographer in the Ukraine,who, in turn, sold them to a newspaper in France.It is said that on the date of publication,millions of people cried after viewing themand that all copies of the newspaper were sold out that day.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

These are some of the finds that I made at Feather Your Nest Antiques and Decorative Arts, a little shop in Tipp City, Ohio that I featured in a previous post. My purchases came to exactly $35.00 and that included tax! I think I found some great bargains and some neat merchandise that I think will help make my house look more like a home.

I found this wood ironing board stashed behind a screen in one of the consignment booths. It was $9.99. I usually see them selling for around $35.00.

I have had a fascination with wood ironing boards ever since an old next door neighbor took me to lunch at a fancy schmancy little restaurant in Oakwood, Ohio and asked for us to be seated at the "ironing board." I thought she was nuts, but I thoroughly enjoyed my meal sitting at a very unique and interesting table!

Here you see my board set up in the great room. It's set up as a table for two for tea. ~I apologize for what appears to be clutter behind the board. That's my cocktail table and the three glass candle holders on top.

This is another shot of the board. The bunched lace table runner was also a store find at a cost of $1.99. I bought two other runners, but forgot to post them.

This small pink and white plate will be going into one of the upstairs guestrooms. It was a bargain at one dollar!

A little bird, (with what appears to me to be drunken eyes ) LOL is temporarily living in this cup and saucer.

I found this small (5 x 5) mirrored pedestal that features etching on all four sides. It can be hung on the wall, as well. Here it holds a pewter candlestick.

These old books are bound together with waxed twine and accented with a pheasant feather.

This is a small silverplated dish that can hold a multitude of things. I left it unpolished, since I like the look of old. It was $2.99.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my treasure hunting finds. I may not always purchase what some people would deem as expensive or very high quality merchandise. I buy what I like and what will enhance my home decor. And if it comes at a very reasonable price point, so much the better.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

While we were out junking for treasures a couple of weeks ago, my girlfriend and I discovered a precious little store in the the historic town of Tipp City, Ohio. Feather Your Nest Antiques and Decorative Arts is a quaint little shop featuring cottage, French, primitive, Victorian, and eclectic decor and furnishings.

Dishwares, glasswares, statuaries, and linens abound in displays throughout the store.

There is an abundance of furniture waiting to be purchased.

The building once housed a dusty, old antique store where I never seemed to locate much of anything interesting, but I was willing to take another chance at finding something to be used in my crafting. Lo and behold, when I opened the front door, I was greeted with the charming atmosphere of a shop straight out of the late 19th century.

Do you see that old black typewriter behind the screen? I am coveting it! I took Mr. Sullivan on a shopping trip with me last week and he offered to buy it for me right then and there. I told him to surprise me with it on a special occasion. Don't know why I said that- it is a long drive from home just to go shopping forone item. He may never want to go on his own. He's kinda attached at the hip when it comes to junking and antique shopping. May have to

re-think this and plan another trip....

The store has a balcony area just like the shops of old always did. I almost half expected to see the ghosts of an old timey bookkeeper and an owner sitting at their desks, overlooking the customers.

This was certainly not the ratty old antique store I remembered being here in the past. When I asked Amy, the owner, how long she had owned this new shop, she said two years! I realized that I hadn't been shopping in the right places for a long time. I had made the 40-plus mile trip from where I live in Washington Township to Tipp City last Christmas, but I only made it into the historic hotel shops. I sure missed the boat on that shopping foray!

There are a lot of vintage clothing items for sale.

I will be posting pictures of my purchases tomorrow. I think I got some really cool things for a reasonable amount of money. If you live in the southwest Ohio area, by all means plan a field trip to this store. Amy is a sweetheart and is a pleasure to shop with.

The town of Tipp City has a little slogan that certainly applies when planning a trip to Feather Your Nest.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

I was as lucky as H. Jackson Brown was to have had a happy childhood full of friends.In grade school I had my neighborhood guy pals who met up with mein the vacant field around the corner where we playedbaseball, kickball, and tag.

To this day, Mike Edwards talks about the time he had to be admitted to the hospital for the concussion I gave him while playing tackle football!

Of course, to complement my tom-boy side, I also had my girly pals with whom I dressed Barbie dolls and talked about the cutest boys in class.

Junior high and high school friendships were both happy

and painful.

As in most schools, there were cliques. We had the cheerleaders,the pep squad, the cowboys, the athletes. There were the bandies, the braniacs, the tough kids, and more.

Often, these cliques overlapped. We were a small school and my friends and I

could easily fit into several categories at the same time.

During this awkward period of adolescence,

we all wanted to be considered popular.

Friendships were cultivated & often kept.

Sometimes they dissolved through petty jealousies.

We sometimes felt the pangs of hurt and anger

when we thought that we had been wronged.

I know now that this was just preparation for our relationships

in college and in adulthood.

Today, I consider myself to be very lucky in my friendships.

My best friend, of course, is my husband.

I have my work friends, my family members, my old friends, and my neighbors.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Just wanted to show you the back of the vintage postcard in my sidebar. Handwriting in days of old was more of anart form than it is now. Most all men and women had flowing, well-formed penmanship. While this particular example is plainer than most for the time frame, it is still neat and well-executed.My mother received formal penmanship classes while attending grade school in the 1930's. She was taught by the nuns in parochial school who drilled their students in correct hand and wrist placement. She related that they endured monotonous hours of repetitive movements in order to form cursive letters that met the nuns' idea ofperfection. To this day she still has lovely handwriting. She tried to pass on her training to me when I was learning to write cursive in the third grade because she saw that the "new generation" was not being taught what she deemed to be the correct way. She attempted to show me that my wrist should not rest on the paper and that my hand should flow freely. "The wrist should do the work for the pencil, Susan, not the fingers," she used to say. She made me practice my lower case o's, a's, and l's over and over again on paper and she even made me air write, (you've heard of air guitar, haven't you?) All of this was hard for me to do, since my own class was not receiving instruction in anyformalmanner. I think our teacher just put up the alphabet chart above the blackboard and told us that was what our letters were supposed to look like. Inevitably, her tutelage did not pay off for me. Her manner of writing just felt too awkwardbecause this training was not being reinforced in the classroom. So I resorted to what everyone else in the "new generation" was doing-- holding my pencil with a death grip and picking up my hand to move along the paper as I wrote. This resulted in sore wrist syndrome that we all got when we wrote for any long period of time. Anyone else remember that? Anyway, it's not that I have illegible or messy handwriting, but it sure isn't romantic and flowing like my mom's example that I am showing you. What does your handwriting look like? ~ Sue

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I'm an avid home stylist for myself, clients, and friends and I admire all things beautiful, interesting, quirky, and fun. Because of that, I like to hunt for hidden treasures at yard and estate sales to use in my decorating. My collections keep growing, but I won't be ready for an intervention any time soon-